50 Sentimos Marcelo H. Del Pilar, pattern

Pattern coinage from the Central Bank of the Philippines in this period reflects the intense nationalist debate over whose image should anchor the new decimal currency series. Del Pilar — propagandist, editor of La Solidaridad, and architect of much of the Reform Movement's anti-friar campaign — was a serious candidate for inclusion before the final circulating designs were settled. This piece documents that deliberation: a rejected proposal, struck in copper rather than the eventual nickel-brass, never reaching the public.